merlandese 's review for:

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

4.0

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Great story with a very good eye towards Chinese immigration and US culture.

Spoiler

I liked the semi-"magical" aspects, although I wish they weren't so easy to write off as imagination. And I doubly love the, let's say, "twist" involving the blank side of the Xmas paper, but felt that actually reading the mother's letter was a bit too forced, a bit too manipulative. I wish there were more nuance, maybe. More of Jack's reactions to what his mother wrote, and less of his mother literally spelling everything out on the page.

All that said, if you're looking for an easy read that is precision-designed to be a tear-jerker, this'll do it just fine. I kinda feel this story is a 3, but I'll give it the extra star for making me feel like the piece of shit son that I am.